238 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



FOUR-MILE TROTTING SPIN AT OWEN SOUND. 



Away back in the '60 's there were not many '* gueril- 

 las" on the road in Canada. Nowadays they are called 

 commercial travellers and the woods are full of them, but 

 at the time I am speaking about the boys could be pretty 

 nearly counted upon one 's fingers and toes, but what they 

 lacked in numbers they made up in quality. 



Branxjh railroads were then very scarce. The Grand 

 Trunk and Great Western had it nearly all to themselves 

 and great stretches of country that are now covered with 

 a network of iron rails, could only be reached at that 

 time on wheels in summer and runners in winter. There 

 are lots of good men and true among the travellers of 

 to-day, but there are also many of the other kind, which 

 I suppose is not to be wondered at considering the big 

 crowd there is; but in the days I am talking about a 

 mean-acting man, such as a sneak or tale-bearer, would 

 have been driven off the road in thirty days from the 

 discovery of that meanness. 



Then the customers, those back of the railway lines, 

 used to hail the arrival of the ''guerilla" as a happy 

 break in the monotonous daily round. The latter gener- 

 ally came loaded with the latest stories and as jealousy 

 was an article then unknown amongst country shop- 

 keepers, they would gather of an evening with a traveller 

 either at one of the centrally located stores or in the hotel 

 parlor and spend a social hour in chatting and yarning. 

 Then one of the longest driving routes, and one of the 

 pleasantest as well, was from Guelph up to Elora and 

 Fergus, then north through Arthur, Mount Forest, Dur- 

 ham and several villages lying off the centre road on to 

 Owen Sound. There was a well-appointed stage line 

 from the Royal City to the upper lake town belonging to 

 the Coulson Brothers, the head of the firm being the then 



